By Michelle Alexander
From mid-1981 and for several years following, Die
teuflischen Schwestern aka Sexy Sisters made its way through
drive-ins and less reputable cinemas around Australia, where it was
inexplicably re-titled Swedish Nympho Slaves. Aside from plunging Jess
Franco completists into confusion, as Die Sklavinnen is also known as Swedish
Nympho Slaves in some territories, this alternate title appears, on the
surface, to be utterly pointless as there are no Swedish characters nor actors
in the film. The reason for this nonsensical decision appears to a canny
marketing decision by distributor Filmways to cash in on the tail end of the Scandinavian
softcore film craze in Australia (which had already been done to death by the
early 1980s). Beginning with the 1970 release of Swede Mac Alberg’s Fanny
Hill (1968), but particularly running rampant upon the remarkable success
of Danish sex comedy specialist John Hildbard’s Bedroom Mazurka (1970) –
at Melbourne’s Roma cinema it screened for an almost 2-year consecutive run,
from March 1972 to December 1973 – a deluge of clunkily dubbed European
softcore features were rechristened with new titles featuring the buzzword
“Swedish”, regardless if the film was not from that nation. Ehepaar sucht
gleichgesinntes (1969) materialised as Swedish Wife Exchange Club, Christa
(1971) turned up as Swedish Fly Girls and Wilder Sex
junger Madchen (1972) did the rounds as Love Play Swedish Style.
Changes in audience tastes and the advent of home video meant the “sexy Swede” stereotype was well and truly running out of steam by the time of Die teuflischen Schwestern’s rebirth as Swedish Nympho Slaves in Australia, with final attempts to wring out every last dollar from the trend via distribution of Walter Boos’ Drei Schwedinnen auf der Reeperbarn aka Three Swedish Girls in Hamburg and Erwin C. Dietrich’s High Test Girls aka Swedish Sex Service (both 1980). Notably, Australian comedians were parodying the dubbed Scandi sex film phenomenon up until the early 1990s, most prominently in the sketch comedy TV show Fast Forward.
Australian Distributor Filmways Press Sheet
Australian Daybill
4 comments:
Thanks for the excellent article, Michelle. Didn't know there was a Scandanavian softcore craze Down Under! LOL. Yes, not one, but two Jess Franco films, which have nothing to do with Swedish characters. I guess Karin Gambier could qualify as a nympho slave in SEXY SISTERS, the title I saw the film under when it was released in the US in the late 1980s, a pretty interesting film featuring the great Pamela Stanford.
The SWEDISH NYMPHO SLAVES re-titling is absolutely, ridiculously stupid, but anything for a buck...was SEXY SISTERS released under that title in the US on tape? I thought it was one of the better films of the E.C. Dietrich era.
Yes, that was the VHS title I rented a few times. It's since been released under it's proper German title on the Jess Franco Goya Collection on Blu-ray. Obviously it owes a debt to Clouzot's DIABOLIQUE.
I can just about remember the Scandinavian softcore craze here in Australia. I was too young to be able to get into R-rated movies at the time but I remember seeing the posters outside the cinemas.
SEXY SISTERS isn't too bad a film of its type.
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